~ All of my early, horrible writing, and what works for me!

Monday Murder: Draft One

“What? Oh, sorry. I spaced out. I always space out when I’m a little under the weather.”

“Yeah, I get that. I could just tell you did when we kept saying your name and you didn’t respond.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I just miss my family more when I’m sick, you know? I don’t know why I agreed to a job on the other side of the country from them. I really miss them.”

“Yeah, I can understand that. It’s hard sometimes. I’ve lived away from my family for a couple years now. The first year is the hardest.”

“Good to know. I should get going. I need to get out of the house.”

“Okay, see you later.”

“See you.”

I hung up and started crying. I didn’t understand why I was so upset. I guess I was just feeling guilty. It was true, of course, that I was missing my family. I also did really feel like I was getting to be a bit under the weather. I took my temperature. I had a 101.2 fever. Well, shit. Damned stomach bug was sneaking up on me. Good thing it was after school instead of during the school year.

I didn’t feel like eating so I just changed back into pajamas and just went straight to bed. This is when it was a downside of living alone. Nobody to take care of you when you were sick. You were all on your own. I hated this. I wanted to feel better. I wanted this guilt to go away. Maybe I was just feeling guilty about the murder because I was sick. I never felt guilty before I got sick, so I couldn’t see why I would now.

I laid in bed for several hours wide awake. I finally texted one of the other teachers and told them I wouldn’t be able to make the Skype conference tomorrow because I was too sick with the stomach bug. I got back, “Too bad. Feel better soon.” Well, there was a little comfort. Not a lot, but a little. I was really glad to have the support. I hated just staying in bed all the time, but I needed to now that I was going sick. I hated this. I wanted to get out somehow. Too bad I was feeling too sick to even move out of bed.

I was awake with what seemed like most of the night. I was forced to get up every hour or two to make a run to the bathroom and puke my guts out. I needed to stop that. I was way too sick to go any further. I was really tired of having to get up. I probably wouldn’t be getting out of bed except to use the bathroom tomorrow. I’ve always hated being sick.

The next morning I was feeling a lot better than I expected to be. I was still sick, no doubt about it, but better. I was actually able to get up and choke a little bit of breakfast down. I still planned on skipping the Skype conference in case I started feeling worse again. It’s like I was pregnant or something, but I knew that wasn’t possible.

I spent most of the day in bed still, but I did manage to get through a day without puking. I wondered what went on during the Skype conference. There was probably more fighting going on. I hated missing it, but I knew I wasn’t going to get anything out of it being so sick. I just hoped that I was going to be able to make it tomorrow.

The phone rang. “Hello?”

“This is Sheriff Hemmingway.”

“Oh, hello, Sheriff. How may I help you?”

“Actually, I would like to thank you. I have tested the fingerprints, questioned the principal, and the more evidence we find, the more they seemed to have been in this murder together.”

Yes! This was coming to a close! I could go to Texas without be suspected of anything! “Thank you, Sheriff. May I ask what kind of evidence there is?”

“Well, first of all, there’s a lot of questions that she couldn’t seem to keep her story straight on. First she said that she took them home and then she said something about how they were stolen from her drawer just a few days ago. I found that highly suspicious.”

I couldn’t understand why Margaret would lie. She had no reason to. She wasn’t guilty, of course, but I wasn’t about to find every reason why she couldn’t be.